Until they rebuilt the university, it was one of only two universities within original castle grounds (the other is in Germany).
As the article mentions, it's an interesting place because it was one of the few major cities not bombed during WWII, so lots of the street layouts are still intact. The note in the article about the open air gutters was funny to me, I saw a few cars rip off their bumpers after the fell into those gutters that would have been rerouted in other cities.
Kenrokuen is an amazing, incredible garden there. I live in Portland now which has what many consider the best Japanese style garden outside of Japan. But, those imperial gardens like Kenrokuen put the Portland Japanese garden to shame. Absolutely worth a visit to Kanazawa just for Kenrokuen.
When I lived there it was considered a bit of a backwater. My Japanese friends said it was the "waki" (armpit) of Japan. Now that the Shinkansen goes there, I think things have changed radically.